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snowblindrpg
Player Information
Name: Iddy
Age: 25
Contact Info: ZieglerFan719@gmail.com,![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
ihdreniel
Other Characters: n/a
Character Information
Name: Alfie Solomons
Canon: Peaky Blinders
Age: Unknown; looks to be in his late thirties or early forties
Gender: Male
Canon Point: post-2x06, "Episode Six"
Background Link: Have a wiki link! It's pretty sparse, so I'll give you an additional run-down of my own for good measure:
Alfie comes from a powerful crime family, and is the current head of a Jewish gang in 1920s London. Their primary income comes from illegal bookmaking at horse-racing tracks, but they also make and sell rum illegally to disreputable businesses, and offer protection from other gangs to those who pay them. By his first appearance on the show, his gang is at war with a rival Italian gang, and they're losing - largely because Alfie doesn't trust the police and refuses to pay them off in exchange for their protection, something that the Italian gang leader, Darby Sabini, has no qualms about doing. Things are further strained because of racial tension - Sabini commonly makes anti-Semitic comments about Alfie and his men, and Alfie's own stories about being brutal towards Italian soldiers during the first world war likely don't help things either.
This is the climate that Tommy Shelby, a Birmingham gang leader, steps into. When he and his men stage an attack against Sabini's gang that Alfie takes notice of, Alfie invites Tommy to come over for a talk. Tommy frankly informs Alfie that he needs help if he wants to win his gang war, and offers to ally their two gangs together. Though initially dismissive of the idea - especially since Tommy wants to start paying off members of the police force - Alfie eventually comes around. But despite their alliance, they very much remain two separate and distinct gangs, and Alfie clearly expects his to remain top dog. When Tommy and his men start becoming too autonomous, taking over clubs and making moves without Alfie's prior permission, Alfie and Sabini arrange a secret meeting to discuss the situation. They agree to broker a truce between the Italians and the Jews in order to take down the Birmingham gang; in addition, it's agreed that Alfie's bookmakers will be allowed to operate on the racetracks that Sabini controls.
While pretending to still be on their side, Alfie invites two of the Birmingham gang members - one of them Tommy's older brother - over to his warehouse to celebrate a traditional Passover Seder. He tells them the story behind Passover, and announces that it's tradition to sacrifice a goat in representation of killing the Egyptian pharaoh who had enslaved the Jewish people - a man who had, in Alfie's words, "pushed [his] fucking luck". He informs the Birmingham gang members that this year, he's named the sacrificial goat Tommy Shelby - and immediately, the Jewish gang attacks, followed quickly by the Italians bursting in to help. One of the Birmingham members ends up shot to death, while Tommy's brother is framed for his murder and hauled away by Sabini-allied police.
This alliance is even shorter than Alfie's original alliance with the Birmingham gang. Sabini ends up breaking his promise to allow Alfie's bookies back on the racetracks, and tensions flare up once more. Tommy shows up at Alfie's place again, Alfie arranges the release of his brother from prison, and after a tense negotiation of terms (and more than a few very serious death threats), they agree to renew their alliance against the Italians. The season ends not long after this meeting, so how long they'll actually stick to it this time is, as of yet, unknown.
Inventory:
- a wool coat
- a top hat
- boots (good for walking, but not so good for warmth or the snow)
- everyday clothes - a button-down shirt, a thin vest, trousers, underwear, socks
- pince-nez glasses (used for reading), strung on a gold chain
- two braided metal gold bracelets
- five gold rings, three of them simple bands and two of them large and heavy with flat faces
- A thin but sturdy wooden cane
Some of these (the rings, the glasses chain, and the cane especially) are things that he would absolutely weaponize in lieu of any better options, so if that makes any of them violate the "no weapons upon arrival" policy, let me know and I'll say they wouldn't come along with him after all!
Personality:
As his background shows, Alfie Solomons is not someone to be trifled with. He's very involved in the gang lifestyle and in criminal activities in general, and he's both capable of and willing to use violence to accomplish his goals whenever he deems it necessary. He's not lawless, but he very much follows his own set of rules, and he doesn't much care if the rest of the world disagrees with his judgements of what is and isn't acceptable. Really, he's as much a businessman as he is a criminal (albeit a businessman who might pull a gun on you while you're meeting with him). He's a seasoned negotiator, he has an actual office where he does actual crime-related paperwork, and his gang has a lawyer on retainer. His wars are fought with words and deals as much as they're fought with guns on the streets.
Despite this, he's not very talkative most of the time. Part of it is because he's just not a very friendly person, but it can also serve as an intimidation tactic - when he puts his poker face on and goes tight-lipped, it's extremely hard to guess what he's really thinking, and he likes it that way. He’s certainly capable of being polite when he wants to be, and he'll sometimes use it to his advantage when he has an ulterior motive - once, when greeting a man who he’s planning to frame for murder, he’s even downright sociable, all smiles and shoulder-pats and smalltalk. And he can change on a dime, too - he'll go seamlessly from congenial to sinister (or the other way around) in no time flat, and neither one seems false in him. It's easy to mistake him for being capricious, but he actually isn't. When he's in Big-Time Gang Leader mode, every move, every word, and every change in tone or mood is carefully calculated and chosen to try to elicit the type of reaction he's looking for. He actually has incredibly good control over his temper. He'll yell at people sometimes, or even physically attack them, but it’s always very methodical and deliberate. When he shows his anger, it's because he wants to - to intimidate, or to punish, or to gain the upper hand - and never because he loses control. Interestingly, when he's just making threats of violence, he'll usually do it very casually - he says "I'm going to shoot you in the face" in the same tone that most people say "I'm going to have you over for tea". He actually tends to be rougher with his own allies (including his underlings in his gang, when they displease him) than he does with his enemies, because he has higher expectations of them and depends on them more. Alfie being harsh with somebody is a sign that he's invested in them to some extent - they're not someone that he can simply scoff at and walk away from.
It can be difficult to say how Alfie will interact with people who aren't gang-related. He says he doesn't like or trust the police, but we never see how he is with regular citizens - those who aren't criminals, and who aren't law enforcement - in the show. However, all the gangs that have been shown (Alfie's included) seem to typically work with and target each other rather than civilians. Those who get caught in the crossfire are usually people or businesses who have allied themselves - either overtly or tangentially - with one gang or the other, rather than those who are completely unconnected to the criminal underworld. Therefore, in Norfinbury, I think he'd be much less likely to bother anyone who sincerely wanted to go about their lives without running into any trouble. But anyone who he earmarked as involved, even just by virtue of who and what they are (generally fellow criminals and shady people, for the most part), would be fair game, as would anyone who made a point of investigating or trying to stop any of the misdeeds he might get up to.
Finally, it's definitely worth noting Alfie is quite Jewish both religiously and culturally. He somehow manages to reconcile his faith with his gang activity, and it's something that he takes seriously. He celebrates the holidays while wearing traditional garb (a yarmulke and a prayer shawl), and he clearly feels a strong sense of connection with his people, both with regards to his ancestral ties and with those he knows in the present day. He would be very aware of the fact that nobody in Norfinbury is really his - he didn't grow up with them, they're not a part of his community, and they don't share the same history or blood - but if he develops close CR, he may still subconsciously apply intra-gang dynamics to them. The gangs of Peaky Blinders have a definite air of looking out for their own - as much as they're willing to break their alliances with other gangs, relations within a gang are generally quite loyal, and the family and loved ones of members are looked after (even, or maybe especially, if the member in question dies). Alfie has the potential to be a formidable enemy or an unpredictable, ultimately untrustworthy ally - but still, given the right circumstances (meaning, if he were actually genuine about it, and in it for the long haul as opposed to just forming an alliance of convenience), he wouldn't necessarily be a bad person for someone to have at their side.
Flavor Abilities: n/a
Suitability:
Alfie's first priority will be figuring out a way to make Norfinbury work for him. He's smart enough to know that trying to operate exactly the way he did at home wouldn't work - both the setting, his (lack of) resources, and the people are just too different for that. I could definitely see him trying to get into organized supply racketeering, or at least occasional forced trade on a one-on-one level (“You give me this thing I want in exchange for this thing I don't want, or I'll make things hard for you”), but unless he really clicks criminally with a group of people, he'll be more likely to focus on looking out for himself rather than try to do anything like form a new gang. He'll still network quite a bit, figuring out how he's likely to want to relate to various people (as a full-on enemy, as a dangerous person who could easily kick his ass, as a potential short-term ally, as somebody to leave alone, etc.). Unless he forms close CR that he might consider worthy of his true loyalty, he'll be out for himself above and beyond anything else. He'll form alliances or join traveling groups if it benefits him, but he'll have no qualms about breaking away from them if he decides that something else will benefit him more.
RP Samples:
log sample
Alfie has only been in Norfinbury for two weeks, but the man he's trailing after now is even newer. His name is Johnson, and he's a loudmouth. From the way he talks on the network, he's a criminal of some sort at home too, though Alfie would bet fifty pounds that he's not a serious one - he robs people of their petty change on the street, maybe, or commits assault in pubs. No, Johnson is just a silly kid - twenty-five at most, and in it for the thrill. So why not give him a little taste?
It's taking him far too long to realize that Alfie is following - another point against him. So Alfie starts whistling a cheery tune, and the man finally turns around. "What do you want?" he asks, suspicious and on guard. Alfie stops walking, spreading out his arms in a who, me? gesture.
"Just out for a stroll, mate. Getting the blood moving in the cold weather." He starts forward again, casually and slowly. "But see here - I couldn't help but notice you've got quite a lot of food in that there pack of yours, yeah?"
"What of it?" Johnson snaps, tightening his grip on the strap of his bag. Alfie clucks his tongue.
"No, no, no - don't mistake me. I'm not here to steal from you. I just thought we could work up a bit of a trade. You see--" He sets his own bag down on the ground, rummaging through it. "I've got this nice set of gloves." He holds them up so Johnson can see. "Extra. I don't need 'em, 'cause I already got a pair. And I've got this." He puts the gloves back in the bag and pulls out a half-rotted piece of floorboard, about a foot and a half in length. "Are you the handyman sort? I'm sure somebody could use it."
"I'm not," says Johnson - but he's relaxing a little, and there's less snap in his voice. "Look, man, I don't wanna trade for your shit. Find your own food, okay?"
"Now, the way I see it." Alfie takes a step closer, body language still loose and relaxed. “You do have twice as much food as I have. That is a fact. But if you don’t like my terms, well then, that’s fair. I’m a fair man. We can renegotiate." He lifts the floorboard again - this time, turning it around and revealing that one side has a bunch of rusty-looking nails sticking out of it. "How about you give me half your food, and I won’t smash your fucking face in with this here fucking nail-board?" he says, just as amicable as can be.
Alfie doesn't kill him. He hadn't been planning to in the first place - this time, he just wanted to give him a couple of good whacks and leave him bloody. But good old Johnson, it turns out, has a trick up his sleeve. When Alfie moves in with the board, he pulls out a kitchen knife, catching Alfie in the side with it. It's not a serious cut, but it's enough to make Alfie grunt in pain, and lose a little bit of his upper hand. They grapple for a bit, and Johnson is able to get a few more good jabs in before Alfie hits him hard over the head with the board and sends him sprawling - not unconscious, but dazed enough that he won't be getting up for a minute or two.
Moving gingerly, with a hand pressed over the wound in his side, Alfie makes his way over to Johnson's bag. "Now - I know we discussed one-half, but I'll be taking three-fourths of your food," Alfie tells the other man. "For my troubles." He transfers the rations over to his own bag, then kicks the remains over towards Johnson. "You'll be wanting to get that head looked at, mate," he says conversationally. "I expect you'll have a good lump."
Then he shoulders his bag, and walks away - limping and trying to staunch his bleeding wound, but still whistling that same little tune.
network sample
Right. This here.
[Alfie holds a plum-sized reddish fruit up to the screen, holding it there for a good five seconds before pulling it away.]
This is a pluot.
[He's not entirely sure he's pronouncing that right - ploo-awt - but all he had to go on was the name written on the grocery store's display. Oh, well.]
And I've got ten of 'em. It's fruit; I'm sure it's delicious. Valuable. And I wanna trade 'em, right, for a straight razor.
[He brushes his chin with his fingers.]
The beard gets wild.
[Also, razors are good for cutting people, if that becomes necessary. He doesn't feel comfortable here without a weapon, at least to defend himself with.]
I'm gonna bury them in the snow, so they'll keep for a while. But they won't keep forever, and so I will be giving them to the first person who offers me my razor in return - or something of comparable value. To be negotiated. If you don't have anything worth offering, then don't waste my fucking time.
[He gives a sharp nod--]
There; that's it, then.
[-- and turns off the feed.]
TDM samples
TDM thread (in-person)
TDM thread (in-person)
TDM starter (in-person)
Name: Iddy
Age: 25
Contact Info: ZieglerFan719@gmail.com,
Other Characters: n/a
Character Information
Name: Alfie Solomons
Canon: Peaky Blinders
Age: Unknown; looks to be in his late thirties or early forties
Gender: Male
Canon Point: post-2x06, "Episode Six"
Background Link: Have a wiki link! It's pretty sparse, so I'll give you an additional run-down of my own for good measure:
Alfie comes from a powerful crime family, and is the current head of a Jewish gang in 1920s London. Their primary income comes from illegal bookmaking at horse-racing tracks, but they also make and sell rum illegally to disreputable businesses, and offer protection from other gangs to those who pay them. By his first appearance on the show, his gang is at war with a rival Italian gang, and they're losing - largely because Alfie doesn't trust the police and refuses to pay them off in exchange for their protection, something that the Italian gang leader, Darby Sabini, has no qualms about doing. Things are further strained because of racial tension - Sabini commonly makes anti-Semitic comments about Alfie and his men, and Alfie's own stories about being brutal towards Italian soldiers during the first world war likely don't help things either.
This is the climate that Tommy Shelby, a Birmingham gang leader, steps into. When he and his men stage an attack against Sabini's gang that Alfie takes notice of, Alfie invites Tommy to come over for a talk. Tommy frankly informs Alfie that he needs help if he wants to win his gang war, and offers to ally their two gangs together. Though initially dismissive of the idea - especially since Tommy wants to start paying off members of the police force - Alfie eventually comes around. But despite their alliance, they very much remain two separate and distinct gangs, and Alfie clearly expects his to remain top dog. When Tommy and his men start becoming too autonomous, taking over clubs and making moves without Alfie's prior permission, Alfie and Sabini arrange a secret meeting to discuss the situation. They agree to broker a truce between the Italians and the Jews in order to take down the Birmingham gang; in addition, it's agreed that Alfie's bookmakers will be allowed to operate on the racetracks that Sabini controls.
While pretending to still be on their side, Alfie invites two of the Birmingham gang members - one of them Tommy's older brother - over to his warehouse to celebrate a traditional Passover Seder. He tells them the story behind Passover, and announces that it's tradition to sacrifice a goat in representation of killing the Egyptian pharaoh who had enslaved the Jewish people - a man who had, in Alfie's words, "pushed [his] fucking luck". He informs the Birmingham gang members that this year, he's named the sacrificial goat Tommy Shelby - and immediately, the Jewish gang attacks, followed quickly by the Italians bursting in to help. One of the Birmingham members ends up shot to death, while Tommy's brother is framed for his murder and hauled away by Sabini-allied police.
This alliance is even shorter than Alfie's original alliance with the Birmingham gang. Sabini ends up breaking his promise to allow Alfie's bookies back on the racetracks, and tensions flare up once more. Tommy shows up at Alfie's place again, Alfie arranges the release of his brother from prison, and after a tense negotiation of terms (and more than a few very serious death threats), they agree to renew their alliance against the Italians. The season ends not long after this meeting, so how long they'll actually stick to it this time is, as of yet, unknown.
Inventory:
- a wool coat
- a top hat
- boots (good for walking, but not so good for warmth or the snow)
- everyday clothes - a button-down shirt, a thin vest, trousers, underwear, socks
- pince-nez glasses (used for reading), strung on a gold chain
- two braided metal gold bracelets
- five gold rings, three of them simple bands and two of them large and heavy with flat faces
- A thin but sturdy wooden cane
Some of these (the rings, the glasses chain, and the cane especially) are things that he would absolutely weaponize in lieu of any better options, so if that makes any of them violate the "no weapons upon arrival" policy, let me know and I'll say they wouldn't come along with him after all!
Personality:
As his background shows, Alfie Solomons is not someone to be trifled with. He's very involved in the gang lifestyle and in criminal activities in general, and he's both capable of and willing to use violence to accomplish his goals whenever he deems it necessary. He's not lawless, but he very much follows his own set of rules, and he doesn't much care if the rest of the world disagrees with his judgements of what is and isn't acceptable. Really, he's as much a businessman as he is a criminal (albeit a businessman who might pull a gun on you while you're meeting with him). He's a seasoned negotiator, he has an actual office where he does actual crime-related paperwork, and his gang has a lawyer on retainer. His wars are fought with words and deals as much as they're fought with guns on the streets.
Despite this, he's not very talkative most of the time. Part of it is because he's just not a very friendly person, but it can also serve as an intimidation tactic - when he puts his poker face on and goes tight-lipped, it's extremely hard to guess what he's really thinking, and he likes it that way. He’s certainly capable of being polite when he wants to be, and he'll sometimes use it to his advantage when he has an ulterior motive - once, when greeting a man who he’s planning to frame for murder, he’s even downright sociable, all smiles and shoulder-pats and smalltalk. And he can change on a dime, too - he'll go seamlessly from congenial to sinister (or the other way around) in no time flat, and neither one seems false in him. It's easy to mistake him for being capricious, but he actually isn't. When he's in Big-Time Gang Leader mode, every move, every word, and every change in tone or mood is carefully calculated and chosen to try to elicit the type of reaction he's looking for. He actually has incredibly good control over his temper. He'll yell at people sometimes, or even physically attack them, but it’s always very methodical and deliberate. When he shows his anger, it's because he wants to - to intimidate, or to punish, or to gain the upper hand - and never because he loses control. Interestingly, when he's just making threats of violence, he'll usually do it very casually - he says "I'm going to shoot you in the face" in the same tone that most people say "I'm going to have you over for tea". He actually tends to be rougher with his own allies (including his underlings in his gang, when they displease him) than he does with his enemies, because he has higher expectations of them and depends on them more. Alfie being harsh with somebody is a sign that he's invested in them to some extent - they're not someone that he can simply scoff at and walk away from.
It can be difficult to say how Alfie will interact with people who aren't gang-related. He says he doesn't like or trust the police, but we never see how he is with regular citizens - those who aren't criminals, and who aren't law enforcement - in the show. However, all the gangs that have been shown (Alfie's included) seem to typically work with and target each other rather than civilians. Those who get caught in the crossfire are usually people or businesses who have allied themselves - either overtly or tangentially - with one gang or the other, rather than those who are completely unconnected to the criminal underworld. Therefore, in Norfinbury, I think he'd be much less likely to bother anyone who sincerely wanted to go about their lives without running into any trouble. But anyone who he earmarked as involved, even just by virtue of who and what they are (generally fellow criminals and shady people, for the most part), would be fair game, as would anyone who made a point of investigating or trying to stop any of the misdeeds he might get up to.
Finally, it's definitely worth noting Alfie is quite Jewish both religiously and culturally. He somehow manages to reconcile his faith with his gang activity, and it's something that he takes seriously. He celebrates the holidays while wearing traditional garb (a yarmulke and a prayer shawl), and he clearly feels a strong sense of connection with his people, both with regards to his ancestral ties and with those he knows in the present day. He would be very aware of the fact that nobody in Norfinbury is really his - he didn't grow up with them, they're not a part of his community, and they don't share the same history or blood - but if he develops close CR, he may still subconsciously apply intra-gang dynamics to them. The gangs of Peaky Blinders have a definite air of looking out for their own - as much as they're willing to break their alliances with other gangs, relations within a gang are generally quite loyal, and the family and loved ones of members are looked after (even, or maybe especially, if the member in question dies). Alfie has the potential to be a formidable enemy or an unpredictable, ultimately untrustworthy ally - but still, given the right circumstances (meaning, if he were actually genuine about it, and in it for the long haul as opposed to just forming an alliance of convenience), he wouldn't necessarily be a bad person for someone to have at their side.
Flavor Abilities: n/a
Suitability:
Alfie's first priority will be figuring out a way to make Norfinbury work for him. He's smart enough to know that trying to operate exactly the way he did at home wouldn't work - both the setting, his (lack of) resources, and the people are just too different for that. I could definitely see him trying to get into organized supply racketeering, or at least occasional forced trade on a one-on-one level (“You give me this thing I want in exchange for this thing I don't want, or I'll make things hard for you”), but unless he really clicks criminally with a group of people, he'll be more likely to focus on looking out for himself rather than try to do anything like form a new gang. He'll still network quite a bit, figuring out how he's likely to want to relate to various people (as a full-on enemy, as a dangerous person who could easily kick his ass, as a potential short-term ally, as somebody to leave alone, etc.). Unless he forms close CR that he might consider worthy of his true loyalty, he'll be out for himself above and beyond anything else. He'll form alliances or join traveling groups if it benefits him, but he'll have no qualms about breaking away from them if he decides that something else will benefit him more.
RP Samples:
log sample
Alfie has only been in Norfinbury for two weeks, but the man he's trailing after now is even newer. His name is Johnson, and he's a loudmouth. From the way he talks on the network, he's a criminal of some sort at home too, though Alfie would bet fifty pounds that he's not a serious one - he robs people of their petty change on the street, maybe, or commits assault in pubs. No, Johnson is just a silly kid - twenty-five at most, and in it for the thrill. So why not give him a little taste?
It's taking him far too long to realize that Alfie is following - another point against him. So Alfie starts whistling a cheery tune, and the man finally turns around. "What do you want?" he asks, suspicious and on guard. Alfie stops walking, spreading out his arms in a who, me? gesture.
"Just out for a stroll, mate. Getting the blood moving in the cold weather." He starts forward again, casually and slowly. "But see here - I couldn't help but notice you've got quite a lot of food in that there pack of yours, yeah?"
"What of it?" Johnson snaps, tightening his grip on the strap of his bag. Alfie clucks his tongue.
"No, no, no - don't mistake me. I'm not here to steal from you. I just thought we could work up a bit of a trade. You see--" He sets his own bag down on the ground, rummaging through it. "I've got this nice set of gloves." He holds them up so Johnson can see. "Extra. I don't need 'em, 'cause I already got a pair. And I've got this." He puts the gloves back in the bag and pulls out a half-rotted piece of floorboard, about a foot and a half in length. "Are you the handyman sort? I'm sure somebody could use it."
"I'm not," says Johnson - but he's relaxing a little, and there's less snap in his voice. "Look, man, I don't wanna trade for your shit. Find your own food, okay?"
"Now, the way I see it." Alfie takes a step closer, body language still loose and relaxed. “You do have twice as much food as I have. That is a fact. But if you don’t like my terms, well then, that’s fair. I’m a fair man. We can renegotiate." He lifts the floorboard again - this time, turning it around and revealing that one side has a bunch of rusty-looking nails sticking out of it. "How about you give me half your food, and I won’t smash your fucking face in with this here fucking nail-board?" he says, just as amicable as can be.
Alfie doesn't kill him. He hadn't been planning to in the first place - this time, he just wanted to give him a couple of good whacks and leave him bloody. But good old Johnson, it turns out, has a trick up his sleeve. When Alfie moves in with the board, he pulls out a kitchen knife, catching Alfie in the side with it. It's not a serious cut, but it's enough to make Alfie grunt in pain, and lose a little bit of his upper hand. They grapple for a bit, and Johnson is able to get a few more good jabs in before Alfie hits him hard over the head with the board and sends him sprawling - not unconscious, but dazed enough that he won't be getting up for a minute or two.
Moving gingerly, with a hand pressed over the wound in his side, Alfie makes his way over to Johnson's bag. "Now - I know we discussed one-half, but I'll be taking three-fourths of your food," Alfie tells the other man. "For my troubles." He transfers the rations over to his own bag, then kicks the remains over towards Johnson. "You'll be wanting to get that head looked at, mate," he says conversationally. "I expect you'll have a good lump."
Then he shoulders his bag, and walks away - limping and trying to staunch his bleeding wound, but still whistling that same little tune.
network sample
Right. This here.
[Alfie holds a plum-sized reddish fruit up to the screen, holding it there for a good five seconds before pulling it away.]
This is a pluot.
[He's not entirely sure he's pronouncing that right - ploo-awt - but all he had to go on was the name written on the grocery store's display. Oh, well.]
And I've got ten of 'em. It's fruit; I'm sure it's delicious. Valuable. And I wanna trade 'em, right, for a straight razor.
[He brushes his chin with his fingers.]
The beard gets wild.
[Also, razors are good for cutting people, if that becomes necessary. He doesn't feel comfortable here without a weapon, at least to defend himself with.]
I'm gonna bury them in the snow, so they'll keep for a while. But they won't keep forever, and so I will be giving them to the first person who offers me my razor in return - or something of comparable value. To be negotiated. If you don't have anything worth offering, then don't waste my fucking time.
[He gives a sharp nod--]
There; that's it, then.
[-- and turns off the feed.]
TDM samples
TDM thread (in-person)
TDM thread (in-person)
TDM starter (in-person)
REVISIONS
Your application looks good! However, despite canon not giving many details about it, we would like to see some speculation on how Alfie might react to civilians and other types of people. Most of the characters Alfie interacts with in his samples are similar character types to those of the gang-affiliated people Alfie is familiar with, so we do not have a clear idea of how he might behave when he must interact with more benevolent and varied character types.
Additionally, we would like to see some analysis as to how Alfie's military background factors into his personality and his behavior. We do not require a lot from this, but we would like to have an idea as to what type of effect it has had on him.
Please reply to this comment with your revisions within three days or your slot will be forfeit."
Civilian interaction
Alfie would be likely to clash with benevolent characters, unless they were particularly passive or understanding. He is from a society where his actions are considered criminal, and it's not as if he doesn't understand this - he knows very well that what he does is, strictly speaking, wrong, but he's neither ashamed of nor apologetic about it. His default would probably be to try to take a "you don't mess with my affairs, and I won't mess with yours" approach. He would consider this to be a very reasonable offer, and anyone who didn't take him up on it would be neatly slotted into the "fair game" category in his head - the one for people who are voluntarily involving themselves in the criminal world, and who know (or should know) what they're getting into. Given the extreme nature of the survival situation in Norfinbury, he'd probably still be willing to interact, make temporary truces, and do business with them in some circumstances - but their attempts to control his activities from a moral or legal standpoint would put them closer to police than straight-up civilians in his mind, and he would rankle at the idea of relying on them for anything or working too closely with them unless he literally had no other options. As for morally upstanding characters who, for whatever reason, wouldn't try to put a stop to any potential unsavory activities, how he would respond to and interact with them would be highly variable - but if they simply disapproved and/or disliked him from afar without getting involved, their morals alone wouldn't put them at risk of his criminal attentions.
One thing to make mention of is that his ideas of what constitutes as being involved in criminal activity might not necessarily match up with most other people's, which could cause confusion and misunderstandings. For example, most of the gangs in his London deal in protection services - a business or establishment will pay one gang to protect them from other gangs (and/or the police, if it's an illegal business). Paying for protection from a gang is absolutely seen as allying oneself with that gang. If a pub pays a gang for protection, rival gangs might see the pub as a viable target (though on the other side of the coin, if something did happen to the pub, the protecting gang would be considered to have failed in their protection duties, and would be responsible for taking care of damages incurred). If Alfie somehow got his hands on a weapon and someone who was more defenseless asked him to, say, escort them across a dangerous part of town in exchange for a few days' worth of rations, they might simply see it as two survivors helping each other out in a way that works for both of them. Alfie, on the other hand, would be much more likely to see it as a contract of his services - and, by extension, an acceptance of and a business relationship with a criminal. Still, when it came to that sort of thing, he'd understand that not everyone comes from the same sort of background and environment that he does, and he'd probably be willing to try to clarify by asking, "Are you asking me to do this just as a person, or do you understand who I am and what I do?" It's a little difficult to generalize exactly where he'd draw the line between "one-time survivor-to-survivor deal" and "actual legit business deal" , but a general rule of thumb would be how serious it is. Things like traveling together for a few days, casually exchanging things like food and information every once in a while, etc. wouldn't be a big deal - everyone does it. Things like traveling together for an extended period of time or making an agreement to meet up once a week to trade supplies, however, would be closer to a formal alliance in his mind. Despite this, he'd probably be open to being more lenient with these lines than he would be at home - he can appreciate different sorts of rules for different sorts of situations, especially since he'd be well aware of being the only person around with his sort of background and expectations. But he wouldn't want to change his worldview entirely, and while he could be convinced to be less rigid with certain things and at certain times, his perspective as a whole would be extremely unlikely to change, and it would color his thinking in all situations - even if he made a conscious decision to handle something differently than he would have in London.
Finally, while Alfie isn't a selfless person by any means and would focus the vast majority of his time on looking out for himself (and, if ever applicable, any close CR), he's not unfeeling, clinically antisocial, or a complete monster. If he ran across a confused newbie and there was no one better around to help them, he'd give them a few pointers without expecting anything in return. If he saw someone alone, defenseless, and in dire straits, he'd have to really dislike them to just walk away. He'd never be one of the people rolling out the welcome wagon, getting involved in community service projects, or jumping up to be the first to offer assistance, but he wouldn't be entirely unsympathetic to the plights of his fellow unwilling Norfinbury residents.
Military background
The aftermath of World War I is a recurring theme in Peaky Blinders. Almost all of the major characters served, and most of them feel contemptuous towards men who didn't. Unfortunately, Alfie's time as an Allied soldier is another one of those things that isn't expanded on much in canon. He talks about the war exactly twice. The first time, he tells Tommy Shelby the story of the time he brutally attacked (and presumably killed) an Italian soldier by hammering a nail up his nose. He refers to it as "[his] own personal form of stigmata" as a weird sort of reference to crucifixion, which indicates that he saw it as a punishment of some sort - maybe because he was angry about Italy's murky role at the beginning of the war and the complicated circumstances in which they ended up eventually deciding to fight for the Allies, or maybe just because he was used to fighting Italians in gang wars at home and wasn't willing to put that completely on hold for the war's duration. No matter his reasons, this gruesome tale indicates that even in extreme life-or-death situations, he won't automatically and completely drop old grudges or let bygones by bygones, even with people who are supposed to be on his side at the moment - it's yet another example of his ultimate untrustworthiness when it comes to his alliances.
His second mention of the war comes, again, with Tommy - when they're locked in the high-stakes, death-threat-filled negotiations mentioned at the end of my written history section, and Tommy mentions that he'd been a tunneler and namedrops his unit. Alfie gives him a menacing half-smile and responds, in a quiet, almost teasing tone:
This is significant because it shows that - even though he's a veteran himself, and even though I don't think he's the type to not understand what a serious thing it is - he isn't above using somebody else's war experiences to needle them. But when Tommy doesn't rise to the bait, Alfie seems impressed by his mettle, chuckling and offering him a better deal than he'd been offering before.
World War I was brutal on an unprecedented scale - particularly in the trenches, where Alfie fought. It would be unrealistic to claim that he came away from it completely unaffected, but he seems to have recovered better than many. The show does not shy away from portraying men who have been deeply traumatized by their experiences in the war, but Alfie isn't one of them. If he's still battling war-related demons, he's doing it very quietly, and in a way that doesn't appear to detrimentally affect his current life.
EXTRA BACKSTORY/INFORMATION (stuff revealed in season 3 and beyond)
- He was a captain in the British Army during WWI.
- He has sciatica (hence the cane), which he claims gets particularly bad "around the winter and the summer solstice".
- He has some amount of experience with gemstones and jewelry - he can assess value with a good amount of accuracy, and is pretty good at picking out fakes.
- He has lung cancer that his doctors think he developed due to exposure to mustard gas during the war. It's not clear when he was diagnosed, but by season 4 it's gotten serious enough that he knows he doesn't have much time left.